Page 71 of The Runner
‘I had another one of those crazy dreams,’ she said.
Cara pulled out a chair for her sister-in-law and Kate sat down and pushed a stray lock of hair away from her eyes.
‘What was it about?’ Cara asked, as George’s eyes moved from the article to his sister’s face.
‘What put you in such a spin?’ he said.
Kate poured herself a glass of orange juice and looked from George to Cara. ‘I’m afraid you’ll think me quite mad, but the dream seemed so real—like a window into another life.’
‘That ship sailed long ago,’ George said, a teasing smile crossing his lips.
Cara rolled her eyes. ‘Don’t mind your brother, Kate. Go on, what happened in the dream?’
‘Well, I was in this very house, but it all looked different—like we were in the Georgian era again. I was wearing this old-fashioned floating gown, and my name was Olivia… the same as last time.’
‘I see,’ said Cara. ‘And did anything happen, or was it more than just the feeling of being in another time?’
‘No, if only! I woke up in a terrible panic because Willow Manor was on fire. You know how it is in dreams when you see something, but you can’t do anything to stop it? It was like that, and a terrifying sense of doom haunted me.’
Kate leant back against her chair and took a deep breath. ‘Even thinking about it makes me tremble.’
Cara patted Kate’s arm. ‘I know dreams can seem so real, but it was just a dream. The memory will soon pass.’
‘I hope you’re right, but honestly, I don’t know what to make of it all. The strangest things have been happening ever since I arrived. There was that weird deja-vu in the priest hole and repeated instances of feeling like I’ve been here before. Could Olivia really be our ancestor and I’m actually remembering a past life?’ She lowered her voice, stunned by her own question.
‘It is bizarre, that’s for certain. What did Sylvia have to say about it?’ asked Cara.
Kate shook her head. ‘She said it is possible that I’m experiencing karmic memories. I came out of there more confused than I went in, to be honest.’
‘Would you like some breakfast?’ George asked, reaching out to pat his sister’s arm in a comforting gesture.
‘No, thank you, I don’t think I can eat.’ Kate turned to Cara. ‘Does it say anything in that Georgian family book about a daughter named Olivia and a governess called Caroline?’
‘I don’t think so,’ replied Cara carefully. ‘Although swathes of the text are illegible.’
‘May I have a look?’ Kate asked, nodding towards the book, which now lay closed in front of Cara on the table.
Cara pushed it slowly towards her. ‘Of course. I couldn’t get much from it with so much of the text faded. George said the quality of the ink hasn’t stood the test of time.’
Kate pored over the book and Cara did her best to stay calm and act normal, but her heart beat riotously, and she exchanged an anxious look with George as they waited to see what Kate would find.
‘So, you found this book when you moved in?’ Kate asked, after what seemed an age.
Cara nodded. ‘Yes, I dug it out of one of those big old storage cupboards in the kitchen. Who knows why it wasn’t in the library? It was fortunate I stumbled across it.’
‘This is amazing,’ she said, engrossed in the old book, as she turned the delicate pages, taking care not to rip them. She raised her eyes to meet Cara’s. ‘Even though I’ve known about our family history since I was a kid, it barely seems possible that our roots go back so far in this same house.’
Cara watched Kate’s gleaming eyes and knew with a sinking feeling that she wouldn’t be easily distracted from trying to uncover more of the secrets of the past. She didn’t want to lie to Kate—it was true she had read nothing specifically about Olivia or Caroline—yet… She felt deceitful not telling her what she knew, but if she did, she would sound like a lunatic.
Well, it’s like this Kate… George and I are time travellers through the centuries, and it looks as though you may be a reincarnation of Olivia, George’s sister, and yes, I was your governess in Georgian times. Um. Maybe not.
Cara sought George’s eyes again and gave a slight shrug of her shoulders. What could they do other than hope she didn’t find any tangible proof? They could hide things from her, but they couldn’t stop her from dreaming and the dreams were becoming more insistent.
Kate left for her shift at the centre, and Cara breathed a sigh of relief.
‘What should we do?’ she said.
‘Absolutely nothing. We’ll just have to let it unfold and see what she figures out.’
